Los Angeles Writes - by Frank Ishman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Los Angeles Writes offers an intimate portrait of one of the world's most dynamic literary communities through the work of award-winning photographer Frank Ishman and the voices of fifty acclaimed authors.

Captured in the places where they write, think, and create, these striking black-and-white portraits reveal the environments that shape each writer's creative practice--from quiet home offices and neighborhood cafés to studios, libraries, and workspaces filled with books, notes, and unfinished manuscripts.

Featuring celebrated writers including Percival Everett, T.C. Boyle, and Susan Orlean, the collection presents a rare opportunity to step inside the spaces where contemporary literature is made. Each portrait is accompanied by an original reflection in which the author shares thoughts on their work, the discipline of writing, the sources of their inspiration, and the drive to keep creating, offering an honest and revealing look at the creative process.

With a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, Los Angeles Writes is both a photographic document and a literary archive, presenting a portrait not only of the authors behind the books, but also the places where ideas take shape and stories begin.

About the Author

Frank Ishman is a photographer who has traveled extensively, living and working in various cities around the world. Frank moves between commercial and fine art styles easily and enjoys incorporating one into the other while always maintaining his focus on the subject. From celebrities and CEOs to rap stars and children, Frank's commercial work includes advertising campaigns, entertainment portraiture, magazine spreads and non-profit assignments. Never without a camera, Frank's street photography takes aim at the everyday, the subject and their environment - always evolving, always finding a unique way of documenting existence. He lives in Los Angeles.

Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam and raised in America. He is the author of The Sympathizer, which was awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He is also the author of the short story collection The Refugees, the nonfiction books Nothing Ever Dies and Race and Resistance, and editor of The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives. He is the Aerol Arnold Chair of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations. He lives in Los Angeles.